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Sunday, September 30, 2012

One Buddhist kid posts a photo of a desecrated Quran on his Facebook page, and Muslims retaliate by going on a rampage and torching from four to forty Buddhist temples (reports differ as to the actual count), and destroying more than 15 houses in the predominately Buddhist section of Cox's Bazar. That's what happened this weekend in Bangladesh. Just chalk it up to another day of Muslim rage.

Uttom Kumar Barua- the boy who allegedly posted the photo, and who no longer has an account- claims that he was tagged in the photo on his Facebook timeline. Still, he and his mum have been detained.

As a result of the violent protests, at least 20 were wounded. But like the Libya attack, it is believed to have been pre-planned rather than a spontaneous reaction to the Facebook photo.

...Bangladesh's home minister, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, today said authorities believe the attacks had been planned well in advance.

“We found evidences of gunpowder and petrol in Saturday’s arson of the Buddhist monasteries and houses," he said, according to Bangladesh's Daily Star, denouncing what he called "premeditated and deliberate act of communal violence against a minority."

Security forces were launched to the area that is located near the Buddhist-majority Myanmar. To prevent further violence protests have been banned. The Bangladeshis have been busy, since they were also out in force protesting the "Innocence of Muslim" film, even going on strike.

It doesn't take much for a backlash, anymore. It's pathetic that those countries do little to nothing to prevent violence and the persecution of minorities. And more often than not, it's encouraged by the leaders of those countries.

There has been chatter about American female Christian missionaries potentially being targeted by terrorists in Egypt, so the U.S. has issued a warning telling them to watch their backs.

“The embassy has credible information suggesting terrorist interest in targeting U.S. female missionaries in Egypt,” the American mission in Cairo said in a statement on its website.

“Accordingly, U.S. citizens should exercise vigilance, taking necessary precautions to maintain their personal security,” it said, calling on Americans to ensure they can be contacted by diplomatic missions in case of emergency.

I'm actually surprised they allowed foreign Christian missionaries in Muslim majority countries? I thought you could hang for proselytizing. Or maybe that's just ex-Muslims who are executed for apostasy.

Although it was blocked by Republican congresswoman Kay Granger of Texas, Barack Obama wants to transfer $450 million to Egypt in spite of the fact that Egypt's new Islamist president Mohamed Morsi pretty much allowed our embassy in Cairo to be attacked and vandalized on 9/11, and is trying to tell us what is and isn't appropriate as far as free speech goes. At the recent U.N. General Assembly session Morsi responded to Obama's defense of free speech saying while "Egypt respects freedom of expression", Mohammed, Islam, and the Muslim culture are totally off limits. In reference to the "Innocence of Muslims", the anti-Islam film that unleashed a swath of violence across Muslim lands, he said:

“The obscenities that I have referred to that were recently released as part of an organized campaign against Islamic sanctities are unacceptable. We reject this. We cannot accept it,” Morsi said, his voice thin with anger. “We will not allow anyone to do this by word or deed.”

No? Maybe in your country, Mr. Morsi, you have control over what people say, but not in ours!

And that $450 million cash infusion is above and beyond what we already are giving them, including $1.5 billion per annum to maintain the Israeli/Egypt peace treaty. And yet when he spoke at the U.N. it was all about the Palestinians and their 'rights', and no mention of the peace treaty.

Morsi also said Egypt would argue forcefully for the rights of Palestinians and for an end to what he called illegal occupation of Arab lands, a reference to Israeli occupation of the West Bank. He said nothing about Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, the basis for about $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid, but has in the past said he wants to make changes.

The Egyptian president denounced Israel’s presumed nuclear weapons, a stockpile built outside the international arms control treaty. And in a further challenge
to Israel and its U.S. ally, Morsi warned against “irresponsible policies or arbitrary threats.” That was a reference to the looming possibility of a unilateral Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Islamists are no friends of the West, as moderate as some might seem. Egypt under Mubarak, as nasty as he might have been, at least kept the West, and Israel, safer from terrorists, not so with Islamists. And why are we sending money that we don't have, considering we are in major debt, to countries that are not true allies?

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Speaking at an Accuracy in Media (AIM) "Obamanation: A Day of Truth" conference, Pat Caddell, a former Democratic pollster, consultant and analyst, takes the media to task along with Barack Obama over the recent Libyan consulate attack misinformation, misdirection and lack of interest.

"I think we're at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy." Caddell noted that while First Amendment protections were originally provided to the press so they would protect the liberty and freedom of the public from "organized governmental power," they had clearly relinquished the role of impartial news providers.Nowhere was this more evident than during the tragic death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya that was lied about for nine days, because the press and the administration did not want to admit it was a terrorist attack."We've had nine days of lies over what happened because they can't dare say it's a terrorist attack, and the press won't push this," said Caddell. "Yesterday there was not a single piece in The New York Times over the question of Libya. Twenty American embassies, yesterday, are under attack. None of that is on the national news. None of it is being pressed in the papers."

Caddell added that it is one thing for the news to have a biased view, but "It is another thing to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know."

Iranian media keeps using The Onion as a source of news information with no clue that it's simply satire.

Tehran-based 24 hour English Language PressTV used an Onion video claiming that Facebook is a CIA front, and that Mark Zuckerberg is a CIA operative, as a source for their own report. The latest bit of stupidity has the state run Fars News Agency plagiarizing, no less, an Onion piece that said rural white Americans prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama. It was edited (they left out the bit about Mahmoud being a holocaust denier who executes political prisoners), but the bulk of the original Onion piece was published without giving credit to the source. They even used the same headline "Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama" which they posted along with a link to their version of the article on their Twitter account.

Although the dateline for the news brief says that the reporting was done in Tehran by Fars, the first sentence is identical to the earlier Onion parody:

“According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama.”

The second sentence of the Fars report, however, changed “have a beer with Ahmadinejad,” to “have a drink with Ahmadinejad,”[snip]

The final two sentences of the original Onion report, quoting a fictional voter in West Virginia who prefers Iran’s president, were published unchanged by Fars:

“He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim.

The only other difference between the two versions of the fake report is that The Onion used a more flattering photograph of Mr. Ahmadinejad, showing him with a broad smile.

It was the third most "important" story on the homepage until Fars finally removed it after the NY Times contacted the Iranian Mission to the UN.

It was also published on Hayat and Mehr news site. So now the Iranian people think the vast majority of whites would prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama. You have to love the narcissism and ego of some of our world leaders, including Obama. But no, Mahmoud, we don't prefer you to Obama.

Another ignorant Obama voter in Bedford, Ohio (near Cleveland) at the anti-Romney rally.
Regarding the murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya (Christopher Stevens), he actually says that "he probably had it coming."

Friday, September 28, 2012

Looks like many of the Obama supporters protesting at the Romney event in Bedford, Ohio on September 26th, that same event where the "Obama gave us cellphones" lady was at, are being paid $11.00 and hour by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Barack Obama supporters at a Mitt Romney rally in Bedford, Ohio (near Cleveland). This is who Romney was referring to as the 47%- not the hard working shlubs who do pay tax but get it all back because they don't make enough, but rather those 'entitled' food stamp welfare queens who often bilk the system and believe that the government should pay for their gas and mortgages and give them cellphones without doing anything to deserve it.

These are the people Romney said won't vote for him anyway, and he's absolutely right. They won't. Who is going to give up free stuff for sitting on their duffs.

Barack Obama masks are outselling Mitt Romney masks for Halloween, so they'd like us to think this means Obama is more popular and will therefore win in November. That, along with the fact the polls allegedly favor Obama over Romney, has them convinced. But since polls are notoriously flawed I don't put any credence into them. Jimmy Carter supposedly had an eight point lead over Ronald Reagan way into October, 1980, and who won? Not Carter. Same thing happened with Dukakis in 1988. Anything can happen between now and election day, and I'm praying lots. And who's to say everyone buying an Obama mask is actually a supporter. It's Halloween after all, the day to dress up in the scariest costume possible, and Obama's persona is pretty darn scary.

But two of the most popular companies that sell costumes- BuyCostumes.com and Spirit Halloween Stores- claim that the most popular presidential mask has always led to victory for that candidate.

BuyCostumes.com statistics said Obama is up 30 percentage points over Romney, and Spirit Halloween has Obama mask sales figures at 69 percent vs. 31 percent for the Romney version.

Skeptics might say the costume poll is just window dressing meant to mask the real issues, but ABC News reports that BuyCostumes mask sales have correctly predicted the victor in the past three elections, while Spirit's mask sales have been right in the past four.

"Our presidential index has proven to be a consistent and accurate predictor of the next president for nearly two decades," Spirit Halloween company CEO and president Steven Silverstein told NewsMax.

For instance, Spirit Halloween figures show that Bill Clinton outsold Bob Dole by 71 percent to 29; George W. Bush outsold Al Gore by 57 percent to 43; Bush outsold John Kerry by 65 percent to 35; and Obama outsold John McCain by 60 percent to 40.

But just as polls are flawed so are these silly kinds of unscientific predictors. Apparently, BuyCostumes.com has sold more Obama masks in Texas, and Romney has sold more in Massachusetts. The liberal media is doing its best to make us believe the election is all but lost for Romney, but we shall see.

If all the Romney/Ryan yard signs I've seen are any indication, we could win this November. I've actually yet to see an Obama one.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Beth and Tom Priem of Austin, Texas thought that some nasty Republicans were vandalizing their Barack Obama 2012 yard signs. I'm sure they were convinced that it was one of their Republican neighbors whose own GOP signs were left in pristine condition. So after four days in a row of finding their Obama signs damaged, they went to the police, who were unable to help. Thanks to their dog, who alerted them, the vandal was soon revealed. It turns out it wasn't a human poking holes in their campaign signs,after all, but rather a deer. A very smart deer, at that. Much smarter, in fact, than the Priems.

Talking to KXAN, Tom said:

"Apparently, we have a Republican deer in our neighborhood!""The funny thing is, I haven't seen any other signs damaged. The people directly across the street have four signs; the person across the street and to the left has two, and the next house to the left has one. We can't figure out why the deer is attacking our signs."

Well, this is depressing. Hal Mason, a former accountant, explains why the U.S. Congress can't balance the budget, and what that means with our soaring debt. It's not pretty.

In a comment on Youtube, Mason says:

Neither party is willing to put our nation before politics. The budget can be balanced but it will require painful changes to entitlements, deep cuts﻿ in discretionary spending and increased tax revenues. It will take decades to pay down the debt. We can either fix it now or wait until we have a financial meltdown like Greece.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The latest song parody is by a group of Kansas school kids and some of their teachers- the song is written by one of them- skewering Michelle Obama's 2010 "Healthy, Hunger-Free Act" which limits growing kids to a mere 850 calories per school lunch. Applicable to both males and females active and non-active, that amount of calories for lunch just isn't enough for the kids to function properly. Now, I understand the need to make lunches more healthy since obesity is a huge problem for our youth, but limiting calories is not helpful in any way. All this will do is make the kids eat more junk food and make them fatter.

The song is based on the song "We Are Young" by Fun, no credit anywhere for the singer.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Oh my God. More clueless Obama supporters. Sal and Richard (from Howard Stern) go back to Harlem to interview people about who they're going to vote for in 2012. They did this in 2008, and the people are just as stupid as they were back then. This has to be listened to to be believed.

I think Bill Maher is generally a liberal ass, but he at least gets the Islam problem, which most liberals don't. This is a great discussion between Maher, Salman Rushdie, Chris Matthews (who remains an ass) and several others regarding "9/11 liberals", or those who after 9/11 remained liberal on most issues other than the Muslim issue. Maher includes the late Christopher Hitchens, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris as 9/11 liberals.

Whether out of fear or simply a lack, there are very few voices of reason in the Muslim world, but there are some. Found mostly in Western countries, they are a breath of fresh air, and worthy of sharing.

Shazia Mirza is a Brit writer/comedienne and Guardian columnist of Pakistani heritage who has written an opinion piece regarding the madness that has ensued over the anti-Muslim film "Innocence of Muslims", and it merits a read.

Getting Offended On God's Behalf

The alarm went off on Monday morning, the radio came on and all I heard was, “It’s been described as the most serious insult to Islam ever! People have been killed, and protests are mounting.”

I thought ‘What’s happened? Has Satanic Verses been turned into a cartoon?’ I switched the TV on and heard people talking about a film.

I had to rush and get on the tube, as I walked into the carriage everyone was reading a newspaper with this same story on the front, I heard one man say to his friend, “They’re offended again”, his friend replied, “What’s new?”

I watched the film, and it’s the most serious insult to film making ever. It is a badly made, amateur pantomime of a film. Clearly a joke in itself. But what is even more outrageous – is the reaction to it.

My mum is religious. Very religious, fanatical about her religion. She’s done Hajj 12 times, prays all day and fasts even when it’s not Ramazan. If she saw the film she wouldn’t like it, but would she go and shoot four people because of it? No way. Because she is a rational, open-minded human being, and she’s so religious she doesn’t watch films, at least ones which don’t include Omar Sharif.

God, whichever God you believe in, is all knowing, all forgiving, and all loving. God has seen it all, because he made it all. He made the blasphemers. God can’t be attacked. So if you’re offended on his behalf, you don’t actually have enough faith in him.

It is fashionable to be offended, and predictable for certain people to be offended at anything from cartoons to films, jokes, books … what next? Food, hair colour?

Every idea, every belief has to be challenged because that’s how the rational mind works. There has to be questioning and debate, and if your religion is strong enough, it will withstand that.

Blasphemy is important. If blasphemy laws ruled the world we’d still be living in caves, and we’d never had made any progress – some people still haven’t. Blasphemy laws are the armour of the insecure. If you are unable to laugh at yourself as a religion or a culture, that culture is suffering from low self-esteem, and devolution. Blasphemy doesn’t just apply to religion, but economically and socially as well.

Now, because of the way certain Muslims react to things that offend them, artists, writers, comedians, film makers all over the world are slowly being silenced because they are scared to say what they think; in case they end up dead. The East is taking away the West’s democracy. I don’t like the film, it is offensive and insulting, although the comments underneath it on YouTube are far more offensive, but if you truly believe in democracy you have to defend the right for it to be made.

It is always a minority that are offended, and they often react with irrational violence, some of them don’t even know what they’re reacting to; violence is all they know. It gives us all a bad name. And if they don’t stop, I’ll have to continue to get randomly searched at airports, being felt up by some strange woman, and not be able to take more than 100ml of moisturizer through customs.

I live in England. It is a democracy, not just because of the way we vote, but because of the way we think. A good working democracy treats minorities well, and has a view of religion that is accepting. Britain is a melting pot of many religions and cultures, which is what makes it so great.

The Muslim world needs to be open minded about religion; it is ridiculous, insulting in itself and anti-Islamic to call someone an infidel just because they don’t agree with what you believe.

Murdering someone, anyone, is never justified but even more outrageous when over a flimsy book or a badly made film.

There is a war between the East and the West, the moderate and the extreme, the religious and the non-religious, the repressed and the free, the open minded and the closed minded. Ultimately the open minded will win. Those are the people, who are accepting and tolerant to other people’s beliefs and opinions which is the fundamental basis of all religion and those are the right thinking, rational people you’d want to live next door to.

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Iranian government is further marginalizing women by not allowing them to study almost 80 different course subjects including computer science, nuclear physics, engineering, business, and of all things English Lit. Over 30 universities have implemented the ban just as the new academic year commenced.

No-one is saying why, but people have their ideas. Human Rights Lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won a Nobel Prize, believes that

"The Iranian government is using various initiatives… to restrict women's access to education, to stop them being active in society, and to return them to the home to weaken the feminist movement in the country"

After the Islamic Revolution women were encouraged to educate themselves, and in fact female university students currently outnumber male 60 to 40, but that is starting to change. According to Human Rights Watch Liesl Gernholtz,

"As university students across Iran prepare to start the new academic year, they face serious setbacks, and women students in particular will no longer be able to pursue the education and careers of their choice."

Of course, others blame it on the economy bolstered by Western sanctions.

"..the dean of Iran's Petroleum University of Technology, Gholamreza Rashed, was quoted by the IRAN newspaper last week as blaming market forces - implying job prospects were shrinking because of Western sanctions.

He said his school was no longer accepting female students due to "the hardship of the work situation, and because the oil industry does not need female students right now."

Still others believe the power and strength of the women in the 2009 revolution has the leaders running scared.

"The women's movement has been challenging Iran's male-dominated establishment for several years," says Saeed Moidfar, a retired sociology professor from Tehran.

"Traditional politicians now see educated and powerful women as a threat."

But it definitely has to do with the continued Islamisation of Iran, and the universities are suffering the fall out. Iran has apparently been pushing for gender segregation in colleges for a while now, and Kamran Daneshjou, minister of science, research and technology says they

"welcome the establishment of one-gender universities, schools for only men or women." He said that was the direction "our religion envisions for us."Mr Daneshjou dismissed Western criticism of Iran's steps, saying: "The angrier Western media gets, the more we realise we are moving in the right direction."

Unless the Iranians take back their country, women will wind up like Afghan women covered in burqas and banned from education.

Just to highlight how ignorant some people are, Bangladeshis went on a nationwide strike Sunday shuttering offices, stores and schools, in protest of the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" and the cartoons of Mohammed which were published in the French Charlie-Hebdo satirical magazine.

Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim country happens to be secular, but the strike was called by members of opposition including several Islamist parties. They also took advantage to protest the secular governments removal from its 'four pillars of the constitution' the part that calls for "absolute faith in Allah".

The police (10,000 of them) came out in force to ensure there was no trouble in Dhaka, including the diplomatic section of the city, which remained relatively quiet as a result of the strike. There was a little more action on Saturday when hundreds took to the streets setting two police cars on fire and throwing stones in protest of a ban on demonstrations. In response police used tear gas, and some 50 people were hurt. On Friday 10,000 protested the film.

Do they really think we care they went on strike? Will their strike affect us in the U.S.? Did the Bangladeshi government have anything at all to do with either the U.S. film or the French cartoons?

Sunday, September 23, 2012

As always, Mark Steyn is spot on regarding the whole Benghazi incident: how it even happened in the first place, and how Barack Obama and the administration handled the aftermath.

In his article "Disgrace in Benghazi" he makes some very astute observations about the ineptitude of our current leadership. He asks why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and General Martin Dempsey initially tried to mislead the world into thinking it had more to do with a spontaneous violent reaction to the anti-Islam film rather than a planned terrorist attack:

One can understand why they might do this, given the fiasco in Libya. The men who organized this attack knew the ambassador would be at the consulate in Benghazi rather than at the embassy in Tripoli. How did that happen? They knew when he had been moved from the consulate to a “safe house,” and switched their attentions accordingly. How did that happen? The United States government lost track of its ambassador for ten hours. How did that happen? Perhaps, when they’ve investigated Mitt Romney’s press release for another three or four weeks, the court eunuchs of the American media might like to look into some of these fascinating questions, instead of leaving the only interesting reporting on an American story to the foreign press.

How did that happen? Embassies in any region with Muslim majorities should be heavily fortified, especially in countries that are being led by Islamists or have militants in their midst, which is pretty much most of them. And I still want to know how the safe house was discovered.

He is also highly critical of how Barack Obama was more concerned with his celebrity status, and his campaign than dealing with this totally avoidable tragedy in the appropriate manner.

The president is too lazy and cocksure to have learned any prepared remarks or mastered the appropriate tone, notwithstanding that a government that spends more money than any government in the history of the planet has ever spent can surely provide him with both a speechwriting team and a quiet corner on his private wide-bodied jet to consider what might be fitting for the occasion. So instead he sloughs off the words, bloodless and unfelt: “And obviously our hearts are broken . . . ” Yeah, it’s totally obvious.

And he’s even more drunk on his celebrity than the fanbois, so in his slapdashery he winds up comparing the sacrifice of a diplomat lynched by a pack of savages with the enthusiasm of his own campaign bobbysoxers. No, no, says the Broadway director; that’s too crude, too ham-fisted. How about the crowd is cheering and distracted, but he’s the president, he understands the gravity of the hour, and he’s the greatest orator of his generation, so he’s thought about what he’s going to say, and it takes a few moments but his words are so moving that they still the cheers of the fanbois, and at the end there’s complete silence and a few muffled sobs, and even in party-town they understand the sacrifice and loss of their compatriots on the other side of the world.

But no, that would be an utterly fantastical America. In the real America, the president is too busy to attend the security briefing on the morning after a national debacle, but he does have time to do Letterman and appear on a hip-hop radio show hosted by “The Pimp with a Limp.” In the real State Department, the U.S. embassy in Cairo is guarded by Marines with no ammunition, but they do enjoy the soft-power muscle of a Foreign Service officer, one Lloyd Schwartz, tweeting frenziedly into cyberspace (including a whole chain directed at my own Twitter handle, for some reason) about how America deplores insensitive people who are so insensitively insensitive that they don’t respectfully respect all religions equally respectfully and sensitively, even as the raging mob is pouring through the gates.

And he wonders at the administrations total lack of concern that "sensitive" papers were taken from the Benghazi compound, papers which more than likely list Libyans who have been helpful to the U.S. We all know what happened to that doctor who led us to Osama Bin Laden. Rotting now in a Pakistani jail because we threw him under the bus.

The video uses source material from WordsMatter2012, a website inspired by a 2008 Obama speech where he said "don't tell me words don't matter." Through his own words you get to decide if Obama has followed through with his promises or not.

Now they're after the head of Stephane Charbonnier, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, for publishing those Mohammed cartoons this past Wednesday.

French police on Saturday arrested a man for apparently calling on a jihadi website for the decapitation of the editor of a magazine that published cartoons mocking Mohammed, a judicial source said.The man was detained in the western city of La Rochelle for calling on the radical website for the head of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which on Wednesday published cartoons of a naked Prophet.“The essential thing is not to let him live in peace,” the man allegedly wrote.Police have opened a preliminary probe on charges of incitement to commit murder, the source said.

But that wasn't the first threat from the religion of the perpetually offended. Some 18-year-old posted on his Facebook page that he was ready to slit as many throats as possible at the Charlie Hebdo offices.

Police detained a young man in southern France on Thursday on suspicion that he was planning a revenge attack on the staff of a satirical magazine which published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

Anti-terrorism magistrates near the Mediterranean port city of Toulon questioned the 18-year-old after he threatened in a message on Facebook to cut the throats of anyone he could find at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a judicial source said.

Charbonnier defended his decision to print the cartoons in the latest edition:

Charbonnier, who goes by the pen name “Charb,” defended the cartoons to the AP in part by telling reporters that Muhammad isn’t sacred to him.

“I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings,” he said. “I live under French law. I don’t live under Quranic law.”

He also said he doesn’t regret publishing the cartoons, nor does he take responsibility for any violence that may ensue.

“We’ve had 1,000 issues and only three problems, all after front pages about radical Islam.”

Unfortunately, they don't seem to care that the rest of us are not subject to their religious laws, and that they need to join the 21st century where civilized folk (i.e. not sociopathic mental cases) don't threaten to chop off someone's head because they happened to feel offended by something that person said or did.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Apparently there was a call by conservatives to boycott Scott Van Duzer's pizza place after he gave Barack Obama a huge bear hug while the prez was visiting his Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce, Florida . Not really a good reason to boycott an establishment, then again neither is boycotting a franchised company because the corporate head happens to believe that traditional marriage is between a man and a woman. Chik-fil-A has a policy of non-discrimination against anyone based on gender, race or sexual orientation, and yet liberals launched a huge nationwide boycott against the franchise, regardless of the fact that this could adversely affect the livelihoods of franchise owners and workers who might not have the same outlook on marriage as Dan Cathy.

Perhaps conservatives felt they needed to punish Van Duzer- a Republican who voted for Obama in 2008 and plans on doing it again- for his betrayal, or maybe it was payback time for the Chik-Fil-A boycott. But Republicans have as much a right to call for a boycott as the Democrats do, although the liberals don't seem to think so.

This simple act of appreciation has triggered a flood of negative commentary directed at both Mr. Van Duzer and his business. Internet flame wars have erupted on dozens of major sites in which many Republicans are claiming that Big Apple Pizza should be boycotted because of the hug.Show your support for freedom of expression and American Business by hugging Obama yourself! Don't let political bullies dictate who we can and cannot support!

How's that for hypocrisy?! It's perfectly okay for liberals to bully and dictate who Americans can and cannot support, but not vice versa.

Liberals and other Muslim apologists like to place the blame on "radicals" and "extremists" when it comes to all the violence in the name of Islam, but the line between radical and moderate is becoming increasingly blurred. I wondered how long it would take for some non al-Qaeda type to officially place a fatwa on Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's head for his anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims", and we now have it.

Pakistani Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, the Railways Minister no less, has placed a $100,000 reward for the death of Nakoula. Not much compared to Salman Rushdie's $3 plus million bounty, which was just raised another $500,000 for a grand total of $3.3 million. But give it another 20 plus years and maybe Nakoula's will reach that amount, as well.

Bilour said:

“I announce today that this blasphemer, this sinner who has spoken nonsense about the holy Prophet, anyone who murders him, I will reward him with $100,000. I invite the Taliban brothers and the al Qaeda brothers to join me in this blessed mission.”

And this coming from a government official! Granted, the Pakistani government distanced itself from Bilour's statement, but nothing was done to censure him for it. Probably because they unofficially condone the action, but know they can't admit to it publicly.

No doubt, there will be more fatwas, and the man will probably have to live looking behind his back for the rest of his life.

It looks like France is finally growing some balls. One of the first countries to ban the full Islamic face veil (niqab), the French have now banned all protests that the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons might happen to inspire.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said prefects throughout the country had orders to prohibit any protest over the issue and to crack down if the ban was challenged.

"There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," he told a news conference in the southern port city of Marseille.

Normally I would condemn leaders banning their citizens the right to peaceful protest, but since 'peaceful' doesn't seem to exist in the vernacular of the Muslims who usually take to the streets, then I say, good on you.

French Muslim leaders were critical, but asked for calm. Not that it's ever a deterrent.

Mohammed Moussaoui, leader of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), described both the film and the cartoons as "acts of aggression", but urged French Muslims not to take to the streets for unauthorised protests.

"I repeat the CFCM's call not to protest. Any protest could be hijacked and counterproductive," he told French radio station RFI.

In anticipation of trouble (we have all witnessed the violent backlash that the anti-Islam film produced, including the death of diplomats in Libya), France shuttered its embassies (along with schools and cultural centers) in 20 or so Muslim-majority countries on Friday. A very smart move, since that's the day clerics usually take to their mics to encourage retaliation for offending their prophet.

And back on the home front, police were poised to take action on any impromptu protests that might occur on Friday and over the weekend. So far, so good- not much going on in the streets of France, although that could change.

This particular magazine edition was so popular it sold out soon after it hit the streets, and Charlie Hebdo had to reprint. The satirical weekly, which has poked fun at pretty much everyone and everything, said it did this not to sell papers, as some have suggested, but to highlight the silliness of the furore over the film.

Besides banning the street protests, Valls took it a step further:

"Neither will I allow street prayers, which have no place in this republic. And naturally the law will apply to anyone who wears the full face veil."

But Charlie Hebdo had its critics in the new government of socialist President Francois Hollande, which called Charlie Hebdo irresponsible.

"When you are free, in a country like ours, you always have to measure the impact of your words," French European Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Letting the threats of violence dictate what we in the West do, is setting a terribly dangerous precedent. We better be very careful how we proceed, or we'll lose our freedoms over a vocal, violent minority.

You too could own one of these limited edition Obama flag screen prints for a mere $35.00. Only 250 available, so get yours quick. But, wait, there are plenty of other gifty type things you can purchase- like the $40.00 Vote Obama I-Phone case, for the wealthy ones who can afford to spend $40.00 on something they will have to retire after the November elections. Or how about the Obama 44 button collection tote bag. Or that $25.00 "Forward" poster that shows Obama in all his smug, arrogant glory. Couldn't they have picked a photo that actually makes him more appealing? How about a smile?

The Obama flag takes the cake, though. Only a narcissist would have the 'stars and stripes' designed with his own logo in place of the stars.

Never underestimate a pissed off woman, especially living under an oppressive regime and one who must deal with religious chauvinists on a daily basis.

Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti claims he was beaten up by a woman after he told her to cover up. Twice. After the first warning she responded, "you, cover your eyes." When he insisted, along with a few choice words she pushed him.

“I fell on my back on the floor,” Beheshti said in the report. “I don’t know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me.”

Who knows what she was wearing to warrant the warning, perhaps her scarf was showing too much hair, or her coat was too tight or colorful or too short, but she decked him so hard he says he wound up in the hospital for three days. Ha. Serves him right.

The Iranian cleric said it was his religious duty to apply the principle of “commanding right and forbidding wrong,” and that he would continue to do so even after living through what he called “the worst day of my life.”

It isn’t the first time that clerics in Iran have been beaten up after delivering warnings, Mehr said.

And who can forget this priceless videoof a woman fighting back a 'black ninja".

Thursday, September 20, 2012

While a few Libyans expressed sorrow, apologizing for the murder of our Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and 3 other U.S. diplomats, others- like this Libyan cleric, are encouraging more killings. On TV, no less. Now these don't seem like militant types, and most seem bored and somewhat disinterested, but when your cleric advocates violence, it's hard not to take him up on it. And take note of the young boys. Shameful.

This preacher man calls for the people of Islam to:

"....detonate our wrath upon them, with deeds they will not be able to ignore."

The few who feel bad about what happened are just that, a few, and while one can appreciate the gesture of goodwill, it in no way makes up for the magnitude of what happened, and what is continuing to occur.

Pakistan loves its blasphemy laws. It's man's best friend over there. Got a gripe or a bone to pick with someone? Your barber gave you a bad haircut? Just accuse them of blasphemy, that'll settle the score. And Pakistanis took full advantage of that during the latest anti-Islam movie protests. Naturally, they took the streets, just like all their buddies over in the Middle East, and Africa, and Australia, and a bunch of other places- nothing like a good rage-induced protest, after all. Egypt and Libya beat them to it, but they eventually packed the streets across Pakistan.

Not everyone jumped on the rage-boy bandwagon, however. There were some who refused to participate, like businessman Haji Nasrullah Khan. He owns about 120 stores, and refused to close up shop after protesters tried to force him to during Saturday's protest in Hyderabad. An argument ensued which then prompted some to accuse him of blasphemy. According to police officer Muneer Abbasi, a police report was filed, and now Khan and his kin are in hiding.

The protesters claimed Khan insulted the Prophet while arguing with them, said city police chief Fareed Jan. But he said there was no evidence to suggest the insults really occurred and that police only opened a blasphemy case because they were pressured by the mob.

Opening such a case doesn't mean the person is necessarily charged with the crime but that police are investigating him or her.

The situation became even more inflamed when religious leaders from one of the biggest mosques in the city issued an edict calling for Khan's death and announced from the mosque's loudspeakers that he should be killed, Abbasi said.

The police officer said Khan and his family members had gone into hiding in fear for their lives.

As for the blasphemy accusations against Khan? Abbasi thinks it had more to do with unhappy shopkeepers who Khan was trying to evict for late rental payment than righteous indignation about the film and his refusal to join them in their anger-fest.

Some have tried to lobby to repeal those barbaric blasphemy laws, but they usually wind up dead:

Last year, a minister and a governor were assassinated when they spoke out about misuse of the laws and suggested changing them. The governor was shot and killed by his own guard.

Rights activists and critics of the laws had hoped that the recent case of a 14-year-old girl charged with insulting the Quran would help bring about changes in the laws, or at least help curb abuse.

The case gained widespread attention and sympathy both in Pakistan and internationally due to her young age and questions about her mental capacity.

She was granted bail after a religious cleric was accused of planting evidence to incriminate her, and her lawyers have said they will move to throw the case out entirely.

And those mobs, that the police obviously have no control over, often take the law into their own hands and have killed accused blasphemers, innocent or not.

Earlier this summer a mob in one Pakistani city dragged an accused blasphemer from a police building, beat him to death and burned the body.

And the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) wants a global blasphemy law? Over my dead body.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has been attempting to squelch freedom of speech for a very long time. Now, members are taking advantage of the latest firestorm in the Middle East (over the "Innocence of Muslims" film, and the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons) to resurrect their efforts to force their way of thinking on the West. They want a global ban on insulting religion; in fact, they want to make it a criminal offense, just like it is under Islamic Shariah law. And we all know what that means: a sentence of life in prison or death.

The secretary-general of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, called on the rest of the world to:

“come out of hiding from behind the excuse of freedom of expression.”

He said the “deliberate, motivated and systematic abuse of this freedom” were a danger to global security and stability.

Uh, no. Freedom of expression is not a danger to global security and stability, a religion that has failed to modernize and evolve along with the bulk of its followers is what poses a threat to global stability. Instead of a decade-long effort trying to force those of us who cherish freedom of expression (regardless of whether we find some things offensive or not), why not try reforming a religion that is in desperate need of it.

And then this:

Separately, the Human Rights Commission of the OIC, which has 57 members and is based in Saudi Arabia, said “growing intolerance towards Muslims”, had to be checked and called for “an international code of conduct for media and social media to disallow the dissemination of incitement material”.

There would be no "growing intolerance towards Muslims" if they weren't trying to shove their religious ideology and doctrine down our throats, or running around destroying property and killing people, including fellow Muslims. Ironically, there is far more intolerance within the Muslim community itself, but in their case they don't merely criticize they blow each other up.

Sorry, but hands off the West. You keep your Shariah, we'll keep our freedom of speech.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Citizens United Productions has produced an anti-Obama documentary film entitled "The Hope and The Change", directed by Stephen K. Bannon, that looks really interesting. Apparently it premiered at the RNC, but I don't recall any information about it, and only just found the trailer (below) on my YouTube. It's a candid look at how disillusioned 40 registered Democrats and Independents have become with Barack Obama. They all fell for Obama's "hope and change" hype and voted for him in 2008. That won't be the case this time around, so they say.

This 60 minute documentary follows the daily lives of hard-working Democrats and Independents through unscripted and unrehearsed interviews. Our diverse cast encompasses a broad cross-section of America’s racial and socio-economic spectrum and comes from seven swing states that experts say will decide the 2012 presidential election. Viewers will see how their nation's economy and society has changed over the past four years under the policies of President Obama.

The award-winning team of Producer David N. Bossie and Writer/Director Stephen K. Bannon traveled to Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to search out these authentic American stories from citizens who have lost faith in their President. President Obama campaigned in 2008 on “Hope” and “Change” and what these stories from Americans show is that they are disappointed in the direction of the country. The voices of everyday Americans in this film will have a major impact on the debates that are currently raging across America.

It's set to air on various TV channels, but couldn't find any in my area. Here's the schedule, in case you do.

The stupid mum who thought it would be cool to take a photo of her young son with a "Behead all those who insult the prophet" placard at the recent anti-Islam film riots in Sydney, decided to pay a little visit to the authorities after there was a call to track down the idiot. Apparently, children's services deemed the kids were safe with a mother who obviously has no common sense.

A spokesman for Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward told smh.com.au the woman had presented herself to police overnight.

"She did come forward and police have checked the children and they're safe'"

"There's been no other reports to our helpline in regards to these children."

He said there were no plans to remove the children from their family.

According to Goward,

"She apparently said the child had been brought [to the protest] because they didn't expect it to become violent, which you might disagree with, but that was her account.""The police then went back to the house and assessed the children and assessed that they were safe. So that is where they remain."But I think there is unfinished business in ensuring that the messages about mutual respect and non-violence are applied to all of us and that all our communities understand that that's what we certainly particularly expect from children."Parents do crazy things; she might just well have thought it was a giggle to get him to hold the sign, a cute little photograph."But it is just unacceptable to the rest of us."This family are now on the radar. We've had a full history done and there have been no other reports. But she knows ... that there is now a report and there will be follow-up and it's something that she will need to be conscious of."

Didn't expect it to get violent? Who takes a child, along with a baby in a stroller, to a protest by a group of people who have very short fuses and almost always turn to violence. And a giggle? A giggle is posing your kid with Mickey or Minnie Mouse at Disneyland. Posing your son with a major incitement to violence is child abuse. To have no compunction about having your offspring hold an outrageous sign while casually taking his photo is an indication of where her true feelings lie. No innocent here. Calling to behead those who insult Islam is about as radical as you can get.

At least there have been members of the Muslim community who condemned her for actions.

Lebanese Muslim Association president Samier Dandan says while he welcomes the mother’s decision to go to police, he disapproves of the behaviour.‘‘That’s something that we don’t encourage within our community, it’s something we condemn,’’ he told reporters at Lakemba mosque in Sydney’s west today.Mr Dandan said he would try to talk to the mother, but added he had been told the boy may have found the sign on the street and was ‘‘caught up in the hype’’ during the demonstrations. ‘‘Does a child really understand what’s written on that placard?’’ he said.

No, the child may not know, but mummy certainly does. And as curious as children are, you don't think he asked mummy what the sign meant?

George Christensen, MP wasn't so understanding:

"Using a toddler to peddle an incitement to violent killing is disgusting and I think the Australian public would expect the authorities to take up the matter with the parents," Mr Christensen said in a statement yesterday.

"If the parents are exposing their children to religious hatred and encouraging violence then perhaps those children should be put in the care of better people."

He's right. I guess mummy can go back to training her cute little wonder for jihad.

Charlie Hebdo, the French (mostly leftist) weekly satirical magazine that had the guts to republish the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons back in 2006, and was subsequently sued by a group of Muslims in 2007, is at it again. In today's edition, it plans on publishing a few more Mohammed cartoons that the editor claims will "shock those who will want to be shocked." And, no doubt, there will be plenty.

However, those champions of 'freedom of expression' don't seem to be too worried about being the next targets of Muslim rage; after all, Charlie Hebdo survived a firebombing of its offices last November over the "Charia Hebdo" edition. If you recall, that was the one "guest edited" by the "Prophet Mohammed", and captioned with "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter." Well, we all know there is no humor in Islam, or at least its adherents are sorely lacking.

Naturally, everyone is panicking in that country- considering the amount of disenfranchised, unemployed Muslim youth just waiting for an excuse to rampage.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, issued a statement expressing his "disapproval of all excesses."The magazine's editor, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time."The freedom of the press, is that a provocation?" he said. "I'm not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn't go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe."

Muslim leaders have also piped in, not that anything they might say will change the minds of those hell bent on revenge.

Dalil Boubakeur, the senior cleric at Paris's biggest mosque, appealed for France's four million Muslims to remain calm."It is with astonishment, sadness and concern that I have learned that this publication is risking increasing the current outrage across the Muslim world," he said."I would appeal to them not to pour oil on the fire."France's Muslim Council, the community's main representative body, also appealed for calm in the face of "this new act of Islamaphobia."

Muslim leaders need to control their wayward followers, and not simply try to appease them.

In the meantime, I'll be waiting for the news about the angry mobs taking to the streets in France.

The cover of Charlie Hebdo (seen above) shows a Muslim in a wheelchair being pushed by an Orthodox Jew under the title Intouchables 2, referring to an award-winning French film about a impoverished black man who helps an aristocratic quadriplegic. Another cartoon on the back page of the weekly magazine shows a naked Mohammed exposing his backside to a film director.

Asked if it was a provocation, Editor Stephane Charbonnier said:

“The freedom of the press, is that a provocation? I’m not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn’t go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe.”

Many people do. But as Charbonnier says, if you are offended by something just turn your head. No-one is forcing you to watch or read something you might find offensive.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The dopes in Egypt seem to think they have the authority to issue arrest warrants for U.S. citizens who don't happen to live in their country. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and 6 other Egyptian Christian Copts have warrants out for their arrest, but they also added idiot Floridian pastor Terry Jones to their list for promoting the infamous anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims".

Of course, that's better than being the target of a death fatwa, which is what Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah wants for all the people who participated in the movie.

Egypt's general prosecutor knows the arrest warrants are simply a means of appeasing the rabidly angry masses who, like Nasrallah, probably want their pound of flesh, preferably dead. It also doesn't help matters for Herr prosecutor that most, if not all of them, don't happen to live in Egypt. At least one would hope, for their sake.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the accused, which includes the film's alleged producer, face charges of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information. The office said they could face the death penalty, if convicted. No date for the trial has been set.

Besides the main culprit Nakoula, they've also charged Morris Sadek (another Coptic Christian who is said to have been the one to stupidly bring the film to the Egyptian press' attention), and Florida Pastor Terry Jones (who promoted the video).

Hassan Nasrallah, head honcho of Hezbollah, wants Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and everyone else involved in that anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims", dead. It doesn't matter that the bulk of the cast and crew had no clue what they were involved with. Nah, he wants blood.

Nasrallah's fatwa has called upon all Muslim youth, particularly those in the West, to do the dirty deed.

"I issue a fatwa and call on the Muslim youth in America and Europe to do this duty, which is to kill the director, the producer and the actors and everyone who helped and promoted the film,"

Amazing to think that the Lebanese, who you don't think of as quite so 'backwards' as some other citizens of Muslim majority countries, voted for Nasrallah and Hezbollah in a democratic election.

And here's some irony for you: apparently, Salmon Rushdie- who is himself a targeted man- believes Nakoula deserves it. On the Today Show, Rushdie said:

"He [Nakoula] did it on purpose. He set out to create a response and he got it in spades," he said.

"He's done something malicious, and that's a very different thing from writing a serious novel. He's clearly set out to provoke, and he's obviously unleashed a much bigger reaction than he hoped for. I mean, one of the problems with defending free speech is you often have to defend people that you find to be outrageous and unpleasant and disgusting."

Yes, disgusting, but calling for someone's death is even more disgusting.

You'd think that in civilized Sydney, Australian Muslims protesting the anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims" would have remained, well, civilized, but that was definitely not the case. They turned into violent animals just like their Muslim cousins over in the Middle East, parts of Africa, and wherever else they felt the need to react like rabid dogs over a movie made by a handful of amateurish hack filmmakers.

The violence isn't the only thing that had Aussies horrified, the fact that children were holding signs "Behead all those who insult the prophet" has them even more sickened. Here you have proud mummy taking a photo of her darling little boy holding one of those signs ( see photo below). And no, it's not photoshopped. Authorities want the use of young children to be investigated, and the Australian Daily Telegraph is actually asking anyone who knows who the woman might be to contact them at news@dailytelegraph.com.au.

Way to go mum. Teach them while nice and young.

Six policemen were injured during the violent riot. Read about the riots here, and here.

What do these people honestly think they are accomplishing? Their violent actions simply confirm that their religion is far from peaceful, and it's certainly not going to stop people from criticizing them for it. Some Aussie Muslims have condemned the protesters for turning violent, but they should do a better job of reigning them in, or Australia should deport all their asses.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Salman Rushdie, the British Indian writer, has lived with a fatwa on his head for the last 23 or so years. In 1989 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini placed a death fatwa on Rushdie for writing the so-called 'blasphemous' novel "The Satanic Verses". And that fatwa is still going strong. Rushdie had to cancel an appearance at a literary festival in India early this year because of death threats, and now the bounty on his head has increased some $500,000 for a whopping $3.3 million total, thanks to the Iranians.

Cleric Hassan Sane'i, and his Khordad Foundation, seems to think that had Rushdie been killed, no-one would have dared make the anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims", and so it is imperative to snuff him out, and there's no better time than now. Otherwise, “the movie offending the prophet will not be the last contemptuous attempt."
Sanctioned murder in the name of religion. How charming. Oh yes, definitely a religion of peace.

Just to be fair- since Republicans are constantly made fun of for their flubs, gaffes and other sillies- here's some of Barack Obama's best.

Remember how George W. Bush was mercilessly skewered for mispronouncing "nuclear"?

Well, Obama has a bunch of his own, including his tendency to sputter when he's off teleprompter. There are some classics here. Watch him call 'Austrian' a language. Can you imagine if that had been Bush?

As if the whole anti-Islam "Innocence of Muslims" saga couldn't get any more bizarre (or confusing), it does.

First of all we were told the director was an Israeli Jew by the man calling himself Sam Bacile. Then we come to find out that 'director' Bacile was not an Israeli Jew after all, but rather ex-con Coptic Christian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. But Nakoula insisted he was only involved in the logistics, and now it turns out he was possibly telling the truth when he claimed he wasn't the director of the tacky film. According to Gawker, the movie- that we have since come to realize was actually dubbed in post production to add Islamic references- was actually directed by a d-rated, "has been" director best known for several softcore x-rated films from the 1970s and 80s. Although this too could eventually change.

65-year-old Alan Roberts aka Robert Brownell directed "The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood", and several others, but had more success as a film editor. If he did indeed direct this, I'm sure the notoriety wasn't quite what he had hoped for his career; because even though he was apparently duped like the majority of people involved in the production, when word gets out to the Muslim world, you know there will be a price on his head.

An Alan Roberts is listed as director on the film's casting calls and call sheets from the summer of 2011, back when it was innocuously called Desert Warriors..

Castmembers and crew told us yesterday that Roberts was brought on by producer "Sam Bacile" aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and he muddled his way through a disorganized three-month shoot.

This is the same Alan Roberts listed in IMDB as the director of a handful of softcore porn movies and other low-budget films, according to acquaintances we spoke to today.

"I am sure it was the same Alan Roberts, as I remember him speaking about this project," said filmmaker David A. Prior, a longtime acquaintance of Roberts, in an email. Roberts is listed as a producer on two of Prior's films, 2008's Zombie Wars and 2007's Lost at War.

"He did work on [Innocence of Muslims]," confirmed a man who was Roberts' business partner in a post-production facility he ran, who asked not to be named.The backstory behind how Roberts became director of Innocence of Muslims is still unclear, like so many things about the film. We've tried to reach Roberts, but his business associate told us he "turned off his phone" soon after protests broke out over the film and is laying low. But he said Roberts was "non-political" and did not have any apparent anti-Islam feelings. Roberts may have been duped by the film's producer in much the same way as the rest of the cast and crew. They believed they were participating in a period piece about ancient Egypt and had no idea the movie would be edited and dubbed into a piece of Islamophobic propaganda..

Saturday, September 15, 2012

The poor PB & J (peanut butter and jelly) has been getting a raw deal recently. In the past week the much maligned sandwich has made the news- twice. Once for its racist connotation (really), and the other for its ability to send some people into severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), even if they aren't the ones eating it.

Let's see how it came to be considered racist:

A lunchtime staple of students for years, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered one of the more popular items found in the sack lunches of school children.But in conjunction with recent equity training in local Portland schools, one principal is raising questions about the mention of the sandwich, arguing it has broader implications about race, the Portland Tribune reports.

The sandwich was reportedly mentioned in a lesson plan last year. Verenice Gutierrez from the Harvey Scott K-8 School used it as an example of a subtle form of racism in language, according to the report.

“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” Gutierrez said, according to the Tribune. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.”

Then it was banned at an Arkansas school for a totally different reason, and some people are hopping mad about that. Apparently, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was snatched from a hungry child's hand because it might cause an allergic reaction in other students sitting nearby. Well, maybe not quite snatched- and the kid was given other options from the school cafeteria- but same thing. The school has a "nut" ban in place, that the parents obviously had no clue about, so the kid was sent home with a note explaining the ban.

A Facebook page called "School Nut Ban Discussion" was created by the parents who were at odds with the school's policy.

In a Friday post on the FB page, one parent alleged that the Arkansas school created a "no-peanut-policy" on its own and only shared the rule verbally with a few parents at a meeting.

The post read:

"The Nut Ban is an Administrative Policy, not a School Board Policy. It is not in the Student Handbook, nor in the School Board Policies Handbook. Parents that were unable to attend Viola's Open House did not hear the verbal made at the Kindergarten meeting. I can speak for the packet sent home with one 1st grade class that there was no information about the Nut Ban."

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich bans are nothing new in many schools across America. However, this recent case gives rise to concerns parents have over nut allergies and school intervention.

As per usual, you have the parents who are happy about the decision, and others who are not. Supposedly the only thing some children with autism will eat is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Who knew.

Muslims love to talk about the importance of gender equality in Islam, but that's far from the truth, at least in hell holes like Afghanistan. Women are not treated equally, and when it comes to punishment are the ones to bear the brunt of it. Take 16-year-old Sabera, who was publicly flogged while her 'boyfriend' was merely fined. She is not doing well since the beating.

A 16-year-old Afghan girl has been flogged for allegedly having an affair and her purported boyfriend fined $1,600 in a rural district under government control, local officials said Saturday.

The girl, who has been named only as Sabera, is in poor health since the incident on Sept. 9 in Jaghuri district of Ghazni province, said the head of the provincial women’s affairs department, Shukuria Wali.

The Taliban have strongholds in Ghazni, but Jaghuri is under government control and is dominated by ethnic Hazaras, who are generally considered moderate by Afghan standards and do not have strict tribal codes observed by Pashtuns, who dominate the ranks of the Islamist militia.

“According to the information we have, Sabera was first wrapped in a white cloth and then flogged in front of village elders and family members. I have heard she is not in good health,” Wali told AFP.

The man who allegedly had the affair with Sabera was fined 80,000 Afghanis ($1,600), she said.

Jaghuri governor Zafar Sharif confirmed the incident and said a government and rights delegation had been sent to investigate.

Although the Maldives is an Islamic Republic island nation in the Indian ocean, and there is no freedom of religion there, it has been known for it's "liberal lifestyle", probably because it relies so heavily on tourism. But all that's about to change. Like so many other Muslim-majority countries that are trending towards religious conservatism, and succumbing to the hardliners in their midst, so is the Maldives.

The Islamic affairs ministry sent a circular “to all government institutions banning the holding of any mixed-gender dance events,” the private Minivan newspaper said, quoting guidelines issued on Thursday.

ministry also ordered a ban on events where adolescent girls were required to dance, the report said, adding that the directives were intended for both state bodies and individual citizens.

It was not immediately clear if the move was legally enforceable under existing regulations, and Minivan said there were exemptions.

Events such as children’s activities, performances exhibiting military skills, parades, playing the national anthem, boy scouts and girl guides performances... were acceptable forms of entertainment,” it said.

There was no immediate comment from the president’s office or the foreign ministry, but Youth Affairs Minister Mohamed Shareef said the "guidelines" were only targeting “indecent” behavior.

“There is a public debate on music and dance and what is permissible according to religion and culture,” Shareef said when contacted by telephone.“What the guidelines are saying is that if people are dancing in an indecent manner, it should not be allowed.”

Members of the Adhaalath Party (fashioned after Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood), and the Islamists of the Maldives, form the bulk of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which recently declared that music is a very bad influence on the nation's youth.

"The worst of all is our youth’s addiction to music and songs, something that is 'haram' (forbidden),” the party said in messages on its Twitter account which also condemned homosexuals.

Cigarettes, music and Internet are gateways to higher addictions like alcohol, pornography and hard drugs. Attack root cause and save our kids.”

They have a Twitter account?

The hardliners have also been trying to shut down all those fancy tourist resorts that serve pork and alcohol, but naturally the more secular types have refused, at least so far. They realize that with approximately 28% of the GDP coming from tourism, and a whopping 90% of the government's tax revenue derived from tourist taxes and import duties, they need to keep those sun and sand worshippers coming.

Who knows what will come next, but it will come. The trouble in paradise started early this year, and will only get worse.

Friday, September 14, 2012

I wrote about the Chicago Public School strike, and from what I had read my sympathies did not lie with the teachers. However, I saw this link to a Chicago Sun-Times article with a series of letters to the editor- including one from a former CPS teacher- on a 'friend's' Facebook page. Her husband is a teacher in Chicago and agrees with everything said. Now I question who is right, so I thought I would present the other side of the story. There always is one, after all.

I worked for eight years with the Chicago Public Schools, and while I am beginning my first year of teaching with a district outside of Illinois, I thought it important to point out some of the reasons why these teachers are on strike, and why I chose to leave this difficult, dysfunctional district.

Things I did while a teacher with the Chicago Public Schools:

1. Bought 90 percent of students school supplies every year. With my own money. Every year.2. Bought a projector with my own money.3. Bought a document camera with my own money.4. Bought a copy machine with my own money because the teachers at my school were not allowed to use the one in the office.5. Went weeks without getting paid due to mistakes made by the board. Multiple times.6. Dodged bullets. Literally. More than once.7. Packed my belongings in plastic bins the minute I walked in the door of my class due to a bed bug infestation that was ignored by the administration.8. Saw an attempted murder on the school’s security camera.9. Had two cell phones, one iPod and an iPod dock stolen from my locked room.10. Was “given the option” to purchase my own classroom key after a substitute walked off with mine. I was told the school could not afford to purchase one for me.11. Taught a class with 41 seventh-grade students in it due to a teaching assistant principal’s decision to not teach that year.12. Spent hours on the phone during peak times when CPS mistakenly dropped my newborn from my insurance plan.13. Bought supplies and awards with my own money for an entire middle school’s science fair because the company who supplied awards refused to work with CPS due to unpaid bills.14. Broke up a fight between two pregnant seventh graders.15. Raised test scores every year. The Chicago Teacher’s Union fights not only for pay increases, but for fair working conditions and fair learning conditions. The teachers have made great gains in achievement over the past few years. Imagine what they could do if the above issues were a thing of the past.